As the Internet has become increasingly popular, more and more content items, such as advertisements, are being distributed on web pages in order to reach a growing audience of Internet users. The distribution can be based, for example, on a keyword search query, or it can be based on the content of a publisher's website. The relevant content items can be displayed to the user, and the user can interact (e.g., click on) with particular content items.
Current systems may use an auction process to identify relevant content items to assign an advertisement to an available position on a web page. The position in which these advertisements are placed may increase the visibility, and thus, the success of the advertisements. For example, an advertisement placed at the top of a page ahead of other advertisements may be more visible to viewers than an advertisement placed between several other advertisements. However, merely speculating about which positions to place the advertisements can lead to a suboptimal placement of the advertisements.